Abducted French girl found in Switzerland

An eight-year-old girl, abducted from her grandmother's home in France last week, was rescued in Switzerland on Sunday.

Investigators found Mia and her mother Lola Montemaggi in an empty building inside an abandoned factory in the Swiss municipality of Sainte-Croix, according to French prosecutors.

They believe the 28-year-old mother may have played a role in the kidnapping and have taken her into custody.

Five other arrests were made in France over the past week.

What happened?

Nancy city public prosectuor Francois Perain called Mia's kidnapping a "military operation" that even had a code name: "Operation Lima."

He said that the kidnappers had walkie-talkies, camping gear, fake licence plates, and a budget of €3,000 ($3,592) to cover expenses.

Three men created fake IDs to pose as child welfare officials, convincing Mia's maternal grandmother to hand her over.

It happened at their home in the village of Poulieres near France's border with Switzerland on Tuesday.

No violence was used in the abduction, said the public prosecutor of Nancy. 

The kidnappers were not known to police but were described as part of the same "community of ideas."

"They are against the state and mobilized against what they call a health dictatorship," Perain said, adding that for them "children in care are unfairly taken from their parents."

After the kidnapping, three of the men and her mother walked over the French-Swiss border, taking turns with the child.

Then a man nicknamed Romeo picked up Mia and her mother in a Porsche and drove them to a Swiss hotel.

They then spent a night with a woman who was a "sympathizer of the movement" before arriving in Sainte-Croix.

What happens next?

Perain said Mia is safe and in good health, and she would shortly be returned to her grandmother.

Montemaggi was taken into Swiss police custody and was expected to soon be the subject of a European arrest warrant for her extradition to France.

Nearly 200 police officers were mobilized in the search effort.

For her paternal grandparents, her rescue "is a huge relief," they said through their lawyer.

"It is the end of nights of anguish and fear for the life of our little girl, in particular because of the extremist commitments of the kidnappers," they said.

jf/sri (AFP, dpa)